A History of Cakchiquel (Kaqchikel) Translation in the LDS Church

Language Background

Spanish is the official language of Guatemala, and is spoken in the major
cities (30% of the population) and among the Latin people who live in the
towns. There are also 23 native languages, which are mostly from the Mayan
language family.
Read anoverview
of languages in Guatemala.
This
assortment of languages causes several social, economic,
educational, linguistic, and political challenges. For additional
information, readProblems
of a Divided Society: The Conflicting Cultures of Guatemala,by
Larry Richman.

Cakchiquel (or,
as spelled in modern orthography, Kaqchikel), is an indigenous Mesoamerican language
from the Mayan family of languages. It is spoken by about 500,000
indigenous people in central Guatemala (most notably in and around the
cities of Patzicía, Patzún, Tecpán, Sololá, Chimaltenango, Comalapa, and San
José Poaquil).

There are three major
orthographies (systems of spelling) used in modern Cakchiquel:

The 1969 grammar book Cakchiquel Basic Course (by Robert W.
Blair, Kristine Campbell, Lyle Campbell, John S. Robertson, et. al.)
used an orthography using the number 7 for a glottal stop, the letter
k for the hispanic c/qu, and q for the hispanic
k. (Read about it beginning on page xviii of volume 1.)

The translations published by The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints (see list) from 1976 to
the 1980s and the
1981Diccionario
Español-Cakchiquel-Inglés
used the orthography used by translators of the New Testament.

1960s

Cakchiquel Basic Course

James J. Stone was a missionary in Guatemala from 1966-1968.
He was one of the first three Elders to work with Cakchiquel, under President Hansen. He reports that Dr. Robert Blair from BYU visited Guatemala with
Roger Thompson for a few weeks. Then later, Dr. Blair, Roger Thompson, and
other graduate students returned to Guatemala. They went back to BYU and
worked on the grammar book Cakchiquel Basic Course, under
a grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Education & Welfare.
It was published in 1969 under the names of Robert W. Blair, Kristine
Campbell, Lyle Campbell, John S. Robertson, James J. Stone, Roger M.
Thompson, Abraham Juracán, Enoe de Jesús Matzer, and Benton Smith.
He also worked with the BYU Linguistics Dept to direct recordings of native
speakers reading Book of Mormon sections.

Book of Mormon Translation and Recordings

The team that worked on the
Cakchiquel Basic Course also created an initial audio recording of
portions of the Book of
Mormon. The audio recordings were done by Manuel Thai (Solola) and Daniel Mich
(Patzicia) in about 1968.

At about that time, a series of dramatic readings were prepared, titled
Ri C'atzinel Chire ri Kac'aslen (What's Important in Our Lives). Listen to
the audio file.

1970s

In February 1975, a dozen elders were assigned to work among the Cakchiquel Indians in central
Guatemala. A linguist from BYU, Dr. Robert Blair, came down to Guatemala and taught
the missionaries a few weeks of Cakchiquel. He not only taught them the
language, but also taught them techniques to learn a language, so that after
he left, they could continue learning among the people. Learn
more about this
Cakchiquel class.

Missionary
Discussions

In mid 1976, three missionaries (David Frischknecht, Julio Salazar, and
Larry Richman) were assigned to Patzicía to translate the missionary
discussions.

Preparation of Simplified Church Materials

In
September 1976, Brother Eb Davis visted Guatemala as the Area Manager in
Salt Lake of Distribution and Translation for Latin American Indian
Languages. He learned of the mission's efforts and had come to offer his
assistance. President O'Donnal outlined for him what the mission hoped to
accomplish and their dire need for simplification and translation of
materials, especially in the four major Mayan languages: Quiche, Cakchiquel,
Kekchi, and Mam. This included the following basic materials: Gospel
Principles manual, Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood
manual, the LDS Woman manual, Walk in His Ways manual for
children, the illustrated Book of Mormon Stories book, the
simplified missionary discussions, and simplified organizational guidebooks
for families, groups, small branches, and priesthood leaders. On a
subsequent visit, Brother Davis brought Josiah Douglas from the Church
Curriculum Department. Brother Douglas then returned to Salt Lake to begin
preparing the simplified materials. The Gospel Principles manual
was published in English in August 1977, and the other manuals were
published in January and February 1978. They were then translated into
Spanish and the four Indian languages.

In his history of the Church in Guatemala, mission
president John O'Donnal wrote the following: "Three exceptionally dedicated elders who had
learned to speak Cakchiquel well, had been chosen to start simplifying and
translating the discussions which were too lengthy and complicated for
teaching the Indians. They were also asked to prepare guidebooks, and to
initiate a language training course for missionaries learning to speak the
Indian languages, beginning with Cakchiquel. These missionaries, Elder David
Frischknecht, Elder [Julio Salazar] and Elder Larry Rich[man], were nearing
the end of their mission, so I requested their term be extended.... Elder
Frischknecht's mission was extended to December 16, 1976, so he could finish
translations of the simplified discussions and other materials." (Pioneer
in Guatemala: The Personal History of John Forres O'Donnal, Shumway
Family History Services, Yorba Linda, CA, pp. 148-9.)

Language Training in Indian Languages

When Elder Spencer W. Kimball was given the responsibility of
supervising all the missions in South America, before departing to visit
that continent in October 1965, he called on President David O. McKay
to discuss his vision for the Indians of South America. Of this visit he
wrote:

He was ready and very gracious... I took my large map of South
America and laid it out on the table....and told him of the millions of
Indians
[on] the Altaplano of the Andes range. He asked me, "Millions?" And I
said, "Yes, President McKay, there are millions and they are pure-blood
Indians who speak diffirent Indian tongues and dialects.... I explained to
him
that we now have linguists in the Church [who can teach the missionaries the
Indian languages so] that they could hear the Gospel, every man in his own
tongue.... I said to him, President McKay,... I think the time of the
Lamanite has come for them to hear the Gospel." And he said, "Yes, it is
time and they must hear it and you are the one of the Twelve who has the
vision of it.... You have my blessing." (Emphasis added)
(Spencer W. Kimball, p. 361)

As mentioned earlier, it was also one of my goals when I was
called as mission president that the gospel be taught to the Indians in
their own language. The language training in the Cakchiquel language
initiated by Robert B. Arnold was resumed and intensified in August
1976 in Patzicia, Chimaltenango....

Only after prayerful consideration and receiving inspiration, were
dedicated elders and sister missionaries selected for this program. They
needed to have learned Spanish well and been in the mission at least six
months. Spanish-speaking missionaries were also selected. We were
then beginning to receive native missionaries from these areas who were
paired off with those learning the language.... The missionaries being
trained were instructed in the classroom throughout the day, then in the
evening they were paired off with missionaries who could speak the language
or with native missionaries, for experience in teaching and conversing with
the Indians in their language.... After a short period of only six weeks
these missionaries were ready and could speak the language well enough to be
assigned to regular proselyting. (Pioneer
in Guatemala: The Personal History of John Forres O'Donnal, Shumway
Family History Services, Yorba Linda, CA, pp. 149-50)

The Provo MTC started teaching Cakchiquel on January 15, 1978.

Cakchiquel Language Book for the Language Training Mission

In 1977, the manualCakchiquel: A Basic Course for Language
Learning was published by the Language Training Mission (now called
the Missionary Training Center) of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The course was written by John
Robertson and Julio Salazar (a returned missionary from Guatemala who
learned Cakchiquel on his mission in 1974-1976).

Scripture translations

David Frischknecht and
Larry Richman returned to Guatemala during the summer of 1977 to
translate the Book of Mormon into Cakchiquel. David and Larry had
been companions twice during the mission. David did the initial
translation with a native Cakchiquel speaker from Patzún and Larry Richman typed the
translations and then reviewed them with a group of Church members from Patzicía.
It was an intense project, working day and night. That summer, they translated
the Selections from the Book of Mormon, a
number of sections from the Doctrine
and Covenants, and many hymns.

Dictionaries

In the summer of 1978,
Drs. Robert Blair and John Robertson of the BYU Linguistics Department
took a group of 11 linguistics students to Guatemala to compile several
dictionaries of Guatemalan languages. These BYU
students donated their summer to compile learner’s dictionaries with the hope of
helping missionaries and others who wanted to learn the native
Mayan languages. Larry Richman, Julio Salazar, and Greg Sansom worked on the Cakchiquel
dictionary, along with native speakers Juan Yool and Alejandro Choc.

Upon return to BYU, Larry Richman spent the next several months editing the Cakchiquel
manuscripts and
preparing a trilingual Cakchiquel-Spanish-English dictionary.
In 1981, the Diccionario Español-Cakchiquel-Inglés was published by
Garland Publishing, in New York City. The dictionary is
now available online. Learn
more about
this dictionary project.

Audio Recordings of Cakchiquel Translations

In 1978,
Larry Richman was hired by BYU Sound Services to find a studio and
Cakchiquel speakers to record the Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith
pamphlet, the Gospel Principles manual, and Selections from
The Book of Mormon. These audio recording were an attempt to
address the educational dilemma described on the
About Guatemala
page. Because many of the people are illiterate, or if they read, are
unable to read their native language fluently, the Church has made audio
recordings of some of the Cakchiquel translations so the people can listen
to them.

After much searching, he was able to find two native Cakchiquels who
could read fairly fluently—a member of the Church who
was finishing up high school and a teacher who was not a member of the
Church. He rented a recording studio in Guatemala City and spent
about a month recording. It then required a lot of editing at BYU Sound
Studios. After proofing the edits, the recordings were
eventually duplicated and distributed in October 1979. A few were
distributed, but not widely. Later, in December 2000, the recordings were
digitally re-mastered and reissued with new packaging. See a
list of Cakchiquel
materials.

Culture Book for Missionaries

The manual Culture for Missionaries: Guatemala Indian
was written to help LDS missionaries understand the cultures of the
native peoples of Guatemala. Larry Richman wrote the text in 1979 for the
Missionary Training Center (MTC). Review copies were sent to the current and
former mission presidents (Willard I. Skousen, Robert B. Arnold, and John
O'Donnal). After clearing Church Correlation, the manual was published in 1980.

Translation of the LDS Temple Ceremonies into Cakchiquel

The initiatory
ordinances, endowment, and sealing ceremonies were translated by Larry Richman during
August and September 1979. They were later reviewed by David
Frischknecht in December 1980. During the latter part
of May 1991, Larry Richman worked with two native Cakchiquel speakers
(Rigoberto Miza and Martin Per) to complete the native language review.
During those two weeks, they made many revisions which improved the
readability and understandability of the translation. Rigoberto and Martin
were a good team, representing two different dialects and two age groups
(two major concerns with the Cakchiquel translations). There was a
good spirit about the work. During that time, they had the added benefit of
two Quiché natives (Angel Chavez and Vidalmino Sarate) and two Quiché
speakers (Alan Christensen and Hugh Biesinger) who were also in Salt Lake
working on the Quiché translations. Since Quiché is a sister language to
Cakchiquel, they were able to consult and share ideas, which were most helpful. The translations were certified on June 4,
1991.

Another review of the
translation was done with the help of two Guatemalans who came to Salt Lake
the week of February 24-28, 1992.

The following cast members traveled to the Salt Lake
Temple for the recording beginning June 8, 1992: Martin Per Toj, Santos Per
Mich, Felisa Holegario Choy de Choc, Rigoberto Miza Moxo, Ruben Meren
Ajsivinas, Rolando Mich Cua, and German Tun lxem. The week prior to the
recording, Martin Per Toj and Rigoberto Miza Moxo came to assist with the
final review of the translation.

1980s

One session of LDS general conference was interpreted into Cakchiquel,
Quiché, and Kekchi every six months.
Translators and interpretors included David Frischknecht, Larry Richman, Julio Salazar,
Fulgencio Choy, Martin Per, Feliciana Xocop, Elma Misa, Greg Sansom, and Gary Larson. In about 2005, processes were set up
in Guatemala for people in-country to interpret and have that interpretation
transmitted by satellite to the various towns.

Florinda Torres
translating into Quiché in Momostenango

Francisca Tzaj from Nahualá translating LDS general conference into Quiche

More Information

If you have additional information to add to this page or corrections for any of the above information, please contact
Larry Richman.